Big Reds get early start in Kickoff Classic

Big Reds get early start in Kickoff Classic

By DAVE POE

CHARLESTON —Only two football stadiums in West Virginia will turn on their lights tonight.

One will be Wheeling Island Stadium, which in December will once again conduct the Super Six state championship games. That’s where Wheeling Park will meet Bellaire.

But that isn’t the marquee matchup of the night.

It will take place at 7:30 at Charleston’s Laidley Field where perennial power Parkersburg High will open its 101st year of football against Mountain State Athletic Conference rival George Washington in the annual Kickoff Classic.

The Big Reds, who spanked the Patriots , 36-7, in last year’s opener at Stadium Field, are coming off an 8-4 season that saw PHS reach the state quarterfinals for the third straight year (the Big Reds have made one semifinal appearance). George Washington, meanwhile, never recovered from that one-sided opener, finishing an uncharacteristic 1-9.

While this game hardly looks like a classic on paper, Parkersburg isn’t taking George Washington lightly.

“The first game sets the tone for the season,’’ said Big Red coach Bernie Buttrey, entering his fifth year at the PHS helm.

Buttrey has lots of reasons to be optimistic in 2006.

“We have a lot of talent,’’ said Buttrey of his squad, which was ranked No. 4 by state sports writers in a preseason poll conducted by the Charleston Daily Mail.

Buttrey is anxious to see how junior Andy Thomas performs in his first start at quarterback for PHS.

Thomas is a two-time state wrestling champion who appears destined to become a four-time titles in that sport. He’s a tenacious competitor who has spread that attitude throughout this team.

The Big Reds truly live up to their name as they are big. Anchoring the Big Red fronts is 285-pound junior Josh Jenkins, a first team all-state performer as a sophomore who is expected to sign with West Virginia University next month.

Parkersburg will run its traditional wing-T offense although first-year offensive coordinator Gene Epley, the former head coach at Marietta College, is going to mix in a short passing game with the Big Reds’ traditional running attack.

George Washington, meanwhile, is a passing team that relies more on finesse than it does on strength. The Patriots are led by split end Beau Wilson, who hopes to find himself on the receiving end of passes from quarterback Jason Smith.

This will be the Big Reds’ second trip to Laidley Field in six days as PHS also participated in the MSAC Grid-O-Rama there last Saturday, when it went up against both Ripley and Spring Valley.

“This has made for a short week of preparation,’’ said Buttrey, who held two practices on Monday.

“We did our normal Monday and Tuesday practices both on Monday,’’ he said. “We did our normal Wednesday practice on Tuesday and we just had a brief walk-through on Wednesday.’’

Even with the short week, PHS is ready.

It’s been ready ever since it lost to Nitro in the Class AAA quarterfinals last year.

The Big Reds have been conditioning since that day, in the hopes that they will be ending their season where the “other’’ game in the state is taking place tonight —Wheeling Island Stadium.

Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com